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Reducing the Level of Power Vibrations in the NEPTUNE Pulsed Reactor

  • NEUTRON PHYSICS
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Abstract

Dubna’s IBR-2 periodic pulsed research reactors are the most effective source of slow neutrons in extracted beams for studying various structures by using diffraction, small-angle scattering, reflectometry, inelastic scattering, and neutronography, thanks to their short-pulse neutrons and high average flux (reaching 1014 cm–2 s–1). At the same time, due to the specificity of the kinetics, fluctuations in the power energy of pulses in such a reactor are tens of times higher than in stationary reactors and create problems when trying to control the apparatus. This paper proposes and substantiates a method to significantly reduce the level of fluctuations in the power pulses of such reactors using the NEPTUNE pulsed reactor project with the Np‑237 threshold isotope as a nuclear fuel as an example.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980, Dubna, Moscow oblast, Russia

    E. P. Shabalin, A. A. Hassan, M. V. Rzyanin & M. M. Podlesnyy

  2. National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, 115409, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Hassan

  3. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 115184, Dolgoprudny, Moscow oblast, Russia

    M. M. Podlesnyy

Authors
  1. E. P. Shabalin
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  2. A. A. Hassan
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  3. M. V. Rzyanin
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  4. M. M. Podlesnyy
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to E. P. Shabalin, A. A. Hassan, M. V. Rzyanin or M. M. Podlesnyy.

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Shabalin, E.P., Hassan, A.A., Rzyanin, M.V. et al. Reducing the Level of Power Vibrations in the NEPTUNE Pulsed Reactor. Phys. Part. Nuclei Lett. 18, 354–369 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1547477121030109

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1547477121030109

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